Mercenary part 1: A Tale of Legendary Proportions
by LillieFloof
Summary: (PS1, AU) With a burning desire to avenge her family, following the recent murder of her brother Nero, young heroine Alis Landale and her companions Myau, Odin, and Noah go on a quest to defeat the evil king Lassic and restore peace to Algo while coming to terms with their past. But who says it's not easier said than done?I Rated T for slight gore, violence, and some language.


**FINALLY, I FINISHED IT!**

**Took me a lot of edits and decisions that I had to piece together, since I'm handling parts 1-4. Part 5 was done as a collab, so that's handled.**

**I got games 1-4 as research for the first four parts, and I've done some research in other sources and messed around with unknown origins (and a bit with the characters and the central plot). If there's any more information I need to know, I'll incorporate it into the stories as well. But in the meantime, I was able to type out this.**

**Designs will soon be released on my DeviantArt page (in my profile's info), I didn't get them drawn out yet. You'll find more information on their reference sheets once I get them done.**

**To be honest, I think I worked with part 2 the most, as I went wild with Rolf and Nei at first but toned things down and worked on other characters as well. Developing Nei and Rolf were the hardest parts, and I wanted to include at least a character from 1. After some tinkering, I thought, "Why not give Alis a second try? I'm sure it would be interesting seeing her in this timeline after I get finished with 1." So Alis will show up in 1 and 2, as well as 4 (who she will appear in alongside Rolf).**

**Yes, I am aware that timelines can be thousands of years apart, so I carefully planned out their appearances, roles, and even their understanding of the timeline they appear in.**

**Part 3 is STILL being worked on, I'm trying to determine where it's placed on the timeline and how the Phantasy Star universe will be affected by such changes. What bamboozles me is Wren's role and the environment, beliefs, and customs they have in the game. Especially with part 4 in play, which I'm carefully planning out. It may take more planning than 2!**

**You're probably saying, "Why are you telling me all this? Get to the damn story already!" But I'm actually boring myself while writing this "preface" as well, so I'm gonna actually get to the story now. Please read and review, I'm open for criticism!**

**This actually took up a whole page on my document editor. Wow.**

[XXX]

**Prologue**

**(Nero's POV, 1st person. AW 329, Camineet, Palma, Mid-winter)**

The last day of my father's job has changed things for the worst.

I was 16, my younger sister Alis 12 years younger than me. My father was preparing to head to work, and then the news came up on the front page in a newspaper that Alis brought in before quickly leaving the room and into her room, shutting the door. That was the first indication that something was wrong. He quickly glanced at the headlines of the front page, frowned, and then put it down.

After a moment of just staring at the paper, I decided to pick it up to read the article.

"RIOT STARTED AT LOCAL COMPANY, " the headlines of the Camineet Times read, "10 DEAD, 3 INJURED."

I heard the neighbors talking about how the riot started as people asked for a change in their salaries to meet the high tax demands, so I continued to read about the article. After reading about some of the incidents that killed and injured the rioters- along with the people around them- and of a few arrests made in the riot, I turned to another page.

Its headlines read, "Local Strike Going on Day 2.

This was what concerned me.

I walked up to my father as he gathered his things. "Hey, Dad?"

He turned to me and asked, "Yeah, son?

"I read something in the newspaper," I continued, "about that riot. It's still going on. "

"What about it?"

"I read that people were getting killed and hurt. I don't want you to get killed or hurt.

My father looked at me with the warmest smile and said, "Nothing's gonna happen to me, Nero. I'll be okay as long as I don't get myself involved. Just worry about taking care of your sister.

I looked back at Alis, who had a genuine look of worry. Then I looked back at my father. "What if you don't come back? What if you get hurt, or worse?"

"Then I'll need you to look out for your sister, " replied my father.

I could only nod. "Be careful, Dad. "

"I will."

My father kissed me on the head and was going to say something to Alis, but she kept her distance from him with a genuine look of worry so he just waved at her as he walked out the front door. She didn't say anything, either; usually she would come up to Dad, give him a hug, and say, "I love you, Daddy." But I remembered that she was considered a "wolfman" for her Bul-gae and Fenrir traits. And her kind, as well as animals, stays away from dying creatures.

She must know something we don't.

[2 hours later]

It's been quiet. Too quiet.

I haven't seen or heard from Alis all day. I know that she's in this house, so she couldn't have left. But maybe something happened to her?

Checking on her won't do any harm, I decided. Usually there would be a lot of racket from her playing with her toys or doing something she isn't supposed to.

I got up from reading more of the article in the newspaper that concerned me, left the kitchen, and checked in her room. No sign of her. I checked in my room, since she liked to dig into my things, and found no evidence of her in there either. Then, there was the living room, which shown no sign of her but a few misplaced pillows. I quickly straightened those up before continuing my search.

I knocked on the bathroom door. "Hey Alis, you in there?"

No reply, so I checked in there to see if Alis was in there. She wasn't.

_Please,_ I said inside my mind, _don't be outside, Alis. They'll kill you..._

At that moment, I realized there was another room to check: Dad's room.

_Alis, you know you're not supposed to be in there!_ I approached the room, which was across the hallway from the bathroom, and noticed that the door was cracked. I opened the door to find Alis just lying in his bed. "Alis," I scolded , "you know you're not supposed to be in here. Come on."

Alis didn't budge, so I said, "Alis, if you don't come out of this room, so help me gods I will-"

"There's no need ," Alis replied in the emotionless tone she usually speaks in, " Daddy's dead."

For these words to come out of a little girl as young as Alis, this was shocking. I actually stumbled back upon hearing these words, a look of shock on my face.

And she noticed too. "Nero?"

" Wh-where did you hear that...? "

"I heard his screams from a mile away. I know he's gone! They killed him, Nero!"

"Are you sure it's not just your imagination?" _As twisted and dark as it can be?_

"I'm sure of it. I heard him."

The two of us remained silent, until I got up. "Our neighbor Suelo lives near the place where Dad works. I'm going to ask her if she knows what happened. Whatever you do, DON'T. LEAVE. THE. HOUSE. Got it?"

Alis nodded, even though I know she'll leave the house while I'm gone. I went into the front room, put my coat on, and lef left the house, praying that Dad wasn't dead and that nothing would happen to Alis as I talked to Suelo.

[XXX]

"He's dead, Nero. I'm sorry."

Before I could even get to Suelo's house, which is not far from us, another neighbor of mine pulled me to the side and told me the shocking news. I couldn't imagine this happening to me, to Alis, to us.

We're both officially orphans now. Great.

"Well..." I solemnly mumbled, " thanks for letting me know... "

"I didn't think that this would happen to someone like your dad either. He never has done anything wrong. Send my condolences to your sister, even if she doesn't accept any, knowing her."

Then suddenly I remembered. Alis! I have left Alis, a four-year-old Bul-rir, in the house by herself. She could've gotten into something that could hurt her, or worse. Hell, she could have even got out of the house!

Luckily, she was right at the front door when I came home. "Nero, what are we gonna do now?"

I sighed before replying, "I don't know. This happened so suddenly."

"But Daddy had a job! And he takes care of us! What are we gonna do now?"

"Just don't worry, sis. I'll handle this."

"You say that every time something happens, Nero!"

Alis looked at me with eyes showing pure grief, yet not shedding a tear as usual. I tried to say something to comfort her while hugging her, but she only stormed into her room and slammed the door as I called out, "Alis!"

This is where the trouble that would forever plague our family began.

[XXX]

**I actually got more ideas for the story as I browsed other works on FanFiction, mainly inspired by FanFiction users Vicious Pink, Azure Emperor, DezoPenguin, and tilinelson2. You guys are great story writers! And Dezo, can't wait for the next chapter in your story Tales from the Guild Bar! It's so damn funny!**

**I've also gotten a bit further into the Phantasy Star games as well, so my ideas were also gearing towards those as well. And I recently found out about three mythical dogs: the Bul-gae, the Fenrir, and the Raijū. I might shape Alis, Rolf, Chaz, and several more around these doggos. An instance was already done in the prologue.**

**Also, half of this was written while I was hella tired, but it still makes some sense, sort of...**

**But of course I edited it.**

**The next chapter will be uploaded soon, maybe sometime when I get done with it. If you're reading the Wattpad version of this story, it's going to have a cover soon.**

**God, I was nervous to even upload this.**


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